Do you ever find yourself in "the weeds" of prayer? By weeds, I mean up to your eyebrows in tall, thick, pressing, prayer needs. Sometimes I feel like I'm wacking away at them with a machete. It's tough work to clear them and I flop down in the field exhausted, and running low on joy.

Many of you are participating or directing your local house of prayer, interceding for your local church, belong to prayer groups, praying for family members, your marriage, city...oh and then of course there are the hurricanes, North Korea, human trafficking, the ending of abortion and the 2-3 requests you get daily from friends and acquaintances because they know, "You can get a prayer through" or "God answers yourprayers." The list goes on and on...

This morning, the LORD walked into the weeds and gently asked for my machete. I told him that many of us are forlorn and the barrage of prayer requests is overwhelming. I told Him, "I can't do anything. I can't even cover all these prayers." His words were straight and piercing. He said, "Stop rumbling and start rejoicing."

God is giving you permission to stop rumbling. You rumble. You pray for personal requests as if they were your own. You rumble in prayer with all diligence. But God has given you permission to stop.

"Stop praying?!" - No...

Continue to pray, but shift from rumbling to rejoicing. Rejoice in the victory. In what Christ will do. Rejoice in the manifestation of the requests. Make a cognitive and language shift in your prayers. Align your heart with who He is, what He is capable of, and what Heis doing. Remember, dear friend that you partner with Jesus, but He is the great intercessor. "...He always lives to make intercession for them." (Hebrew 7:25)

After I handed the LORD my machete, He pulled out a huge gas-powered trimmer. It was beyond commercial standards. I can only describe it as "Industrial Plus." I began to rejoice and thank Him for all His answers to myriad of prayer requests, and guess what? I am sending this to you full of joy! The weeds are being leveled as you and I rejoice. Let's pray:

"Abba, we rejoice in who You are! Your shoulders are broad and Your hand is strong. You control the world. The earth is Your footstool. Nothing confounds You. Nothing worries You. You keep our hearts beating in our chests and it's Your breath in our lungs. We are small, but You are so very large. Over all the pressing circumstances, we declare; YOU ARE ABLE!"

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1Thessalonians 5:16-18)